Ben Parker, SSCP DTP PhD researcher at Imperial College London, funded by NERC, discusses his research with the Global Centre on Biodiversity for Climate, a UK Official Development Assistance programme, on the value of conserving and sustainably using biodiversity in agrifood systems to advance poverty alleviation and climate resilience. He identifies key factors and research priorities in this space.
The conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity can be a useful and cost-effective tool for advancing poverty alleviation and enhancing climate resilience. This is particularly the case in agrifood systems, which encompass the many interconnected activities and actors involved in getting food from field to fork, and span modes of food production like agriculture, rearing livestock, fisheries, aquaculture, and forestry.
Agrifood production constitutes a core component of the lives and livelihoods of many of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people, both in terms of farmed production and the wild harvest of species. This agrifood production and its subsequent distribution, though, are threatened by various climate pressures; for instance, increasing frequencies and intensities of water scarcity, heat stress, and floods.
The conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, however, can bolster the functionality, sustainability and resilience of agrifood systems, and, in so doing, support poverty alleviation and climate resilience. The biodiversity in question corresponds to that of the farmed and wild-harvested plants, animals and fungi, as well as to the many ecosystem components and processes that deliver the ecosystem services that benefit production. Yet, agrifood production both suffers from biodiversity loss and is the main driver of biodiversity loss. Often, though, there are uncertainties around how to conserve and use biodiversity most effectively in agrifood systems to support poverty alleviation and climate resilience. In such cases, research could yield insights that empower transformative change.
The Global Centre on Biodiversity for Climate: a flagship UK ODA programme
The Global Centre on Biodiversity for Climate (GCBC) seeks to address the uncertainties around how to best conserve and sustainably use biodiversity for advancing poverty alleviation and enhancing climate resilience. It is funded under the UK Government’s International Climate Finance portfolio and targets countries that are eligible for Official Development Assistance (ODA) in the regions/groups of Latin America and the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia and the Pacific, and Small Island Developing States. Specifically, it supports the development of innovative and scalable approaches for how to conserve and sustainably use biodiversity in ways that improve the lives and livelihoods of people living in poverty and enhance their climate resilience. Agrifood systems are a prominent aspect of the GCBC’s scope, as reflected in the GCBC-funded projects and the theme of the recent GCBC grant competition.
Identifying research priorities: a demand-led, evidence-based and systems-oriented approach
The GCBC strives to be demand-led and evidence-based. To support this ambition, members of the GCBC team led a series of parallel studies to investigate stakeholder perspectives and the wider evidence on the key factors and priority research areas for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity for poverty alleviation and climate resilience. These studies, some of which were regional and others thematic, drew insights from workshops with researchers and practitioners, relevant policy documents, and wider reports and academic literature. All information was assessed from a systems perspective. The agrifood-focused research drew insights from the regional workshops, policies and literature, as well as from the agrifood-specific workshops, including sessions conducted at the GCBC Research Symposium, and relevant publications.
Research priorities for biodiversity action for poverty alleviation and climate resilience in agrifood systems
The research emphasised that the effective conservation and use of biodiversity in agrifood systems can be a powerful tool for advancing poverty alleviation and enhancing climate resilience. It identified notable challenges for effective biodiversity action in agrifood systems, such as limited access to resources, finance, markets and knowledge; lack of recognition in legal and decision-making structures (especially regarding land rights); and, of course, difficulties posed by environmental and climatic conditions and change. It nevertheless identified several solutions and enablers for farmed production and wild harvest systems, such as using more profitable, sustainable and climate-resilient varieties and practices; engaging with local and traditional knowledge; promoting access to resources, (more flexible) finance, markets and knowledge; and increasing involvement in governance.
In turn, the research highlighted several research avenues that could generate particularly impactful insights for improving how biodiversity is conserved and used in agrifood systems for supporting poverty alleviation and climate resilience.
For farmed production, key research areas include determining how to improve crops and livestock, consolidating and using local and traditional knowledge, and evaluating how to drive uptake of more profitable, sustainable and climate-resilient practices (Table 1). For wild harvest, priority research avenues include assessing how to enhance value addition across value chains (and how to ensure that it is sustainable and wild harvesters benefit), establishing how to monitor species that are wild harvested in cost-effective and scalable ways, and identifying insights from local and traditional knowledge that could enable more sustainable practices (Table 1). Further, such research would benefit from having concerted collaboration with key actors to enable and encourage the uptake of insights, as well as adopting sufficiently holistic perspectives (e.g., landscape/seascape, transboundary, One Health) and being duly tailored to respective contexts.
Table 1. Research areas for biodiversity action for poverty alleviation and climate resilience in agrifood systems.
| Farmed production | Wild harvest |
| – Determine how to improve crops (using landraces and wild relatives, and novel tools, such as neodomestication) – Determine how to improve livestock (identifying and using key ecotypes) – Consolidate and use relevant insights from local & traditional knowledge – Establish how to enable the adoption of ‘better’ practices (e.g., viable & scalable business models, overcoming barriers) | – Evaluate how to enhance value addition – Assess how to develop wild harvest markets in sustainable ways – Determine how to gather up-to-date information on targeted species – Develop more detailed predictions of species responses to climate change – Evaluate the impacts of livelihood diversification for wild harvesters – Consolidate and use relevant local and traditional knowledge on wild harvests |
The insights from this study could enable interested parties to take more demand-led and evidence-based approaches to improve how they conserve and use biodiversity in agrifood systems for advancing poverty alleviation and enhancing climate resilience – particularly parties that seek to support innovative and potentially transformative research. These insights are therefore relevant to the GCBC itself, as well as to the many other bodies that are committed to encouraging and enabling sustainable development worldwide.
Invaluable inputs from co-authors and collaborators
This study benefitted hugely from the contributions of the co-authors: Elizabeth Warham, Head of the GCBC; Erica Dholoo, lead on Central and South America study; Penny Downes, lead on Sub-Saharan Africa study; Melody Yin, lead on Southeast Asia study; and Rosie Clear Hill, lead on Small Island Developing States study. It also benefited greatly from the researchers and practitioners who generously contributed their time and expertise to provide insights.
For further details on this work, please contact the lead author, Ben Parker (b.parker23@imperial.ac.uk).
